1981 was a tragic year for Hollywood when news of Natalie Wood’s death broke headlines, and conspiracy theories over Christopher Walken and husband Robert Wagner still surface decades later.
In some of the most heartbreaking circumstances, some celebrities live on years after they pass away, especially if they die under mysterious ways. Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana and Amy Winehouse, to name a few, will forever be drudged up in pop culture for how they died or the life they lived. Natalie Wood’s death is also part of this group. She died on Thanksgiving weekend after spending time with Christopher Walken and her husband, hours before meeting her tragic fate. The Hollywood star’s death being redefined three decades after that fateful night also adds interest to the case.
Natalie Wood’s cause of death ‘redefined’ decades later
Natalie, who would be 86 this year, was born in 1938 and died at 43 years old.
She had been enjoying the weekend with her husband, Robert Wagner – who she married twice – and captain Dennis Davern, as well as movie star Christopher Walken, who joined Natalie Wood’s company on the yacht.
Tragically, the star was found floating in the water on December 1, 1981.
At the time, the LA County Sheriff’s Office noted her cause of death as an accident.
LA County Coroner Thomas Noguchi had a theory on what may have happened. He suggested she was intoxicated while trying to board an inflatable dinghy but missed her step, in the middle of the night.
However, when Wagner released a memoir in 2008, he offered a theory Natalie Wood’s death came after she fell into the water. He suggested she was attempting to re-tie the dinghy, which had been banging against the boat.
Captain Davern then wrote his own book the next year. He alleged Wagner and Wood were rowing, and other witnesses claimed they heard arguments but didn’t tell police as her death was classed as an accident.
Investigation reopens
In 2011, following mainstream and social media speculation, the case was reopened. They changed Natalie Wood’s cause of death to ‘drowning and other undetermined factors’. Cops said the ‘facts didn’t add up’.
In 2018, Wagner was named as a person of interest – but not as a suspect.
The actress’ sister Lana then joined the publishing game and wrote her own book three years later. She also didn’t buy the idea the Rebel Without A Cause star had died from an accident.
Previously, Wagner and Walken assumed the star left the boat to call her children, as it was 50 feet away from Catalina Island. They say she did that the night before.
An HBO documentary released in 2020 opened up the case once again. Titled, Natalie Wood: What Remains, brought the investigation back into the limelight, although no other movement has occurred. As it stands, her death is just as a tragedy mystery as it happened back in 1981.
But the starlet was loved by film fans around the world, so her passing hasn’t been an easy pill to swallow. Which is probably why people keep coming back to it.
Woods had three Oscar nominations during her Hollywood career. First for Rebel Without A Cause, aged 17, followed by Splendor in the Grass and Love With The Proper Stranger, alongside Steve McQueen.
She starred alongside some of Tinsel Town’s greatest stars, from John Wayne, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and also bagged a role in West Side Story.
Christopher Walken broke his silence over Natalie Wood’s death 11 years later
Another movie star was there that night, though, the Pulp Fiction and Hairspray star has remained tight-lipped about the tragedy most of the time.
Three years later, speaking to People, he found the subject hard to discuss.
When Natalie Wood was brought up, Christopher Walken ‘snapped’: “I don’t know what happened.
“She slipped and fell in the water. I was in bed then. It was a terrible thing. Look,” he continues, “we’re in a conversation I won’t have. It’s a f***ing bore.”
But Walken did break his silence 11 years later, and offered a theory on what happened to Wood.
He told Playboy Magazine in 1997: “Anybody there saw the logistics — of the boat, the night, where we were, that it was raining — and would know exactly what happened.
“You hear about things happening to people – they slip in the bathtub, fall down the stairs, step off the curb in London because they think that the cars come the other way – and they die. You feel you want to die making an effort at something; you don’t want to die in some unnecessary way.”
“What happened that night only she knows, because she was alone,” he added.
“She had gone to bed before us, and her room was at the back. A dinghy was bouncing against the side of the boat, and I think she went out to move it. There was a ski ramp that was partially in the water. It was slippery – I had walked on it myself. She had told me she couldn’t swim; in fact, they had to cut a swimming scene from [Brainstorm]. She was probably half asleep, and she was wearing a coat.”
Walken believes Wood hit her head, fell into the water and floated away.
He hasn’t said much else in the years that have followed. Walken has not been considered a suspect in the inquiry, either.
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